Flushing valve



June 2, 1925. 1,540,267

` 'J. F. LANGSTON FLUSHING VALVE Filed Feb. 5. 1925 Patented `.lune 2, 1925'.

JAMEs r. LANGsroN, or Los ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

rLUsHrNG VALVE.

Application filed February 3, 1923. Serial No. 616,838.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it lmown that I, JAMES F. LANes'roN, a citizen of the United States, residing in Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles,`State of California, have invented new and yuseful Improvements in Flushing Valves, of which the following is a specication.

This invention relates to flushing valves-e valves adapted to deliver a measured quantity of water or other fluid resultant upon a manual or other initial actuation; and it may be stated as a general object of the invention to provide a simple inexpensive form of valve that will be reliable in action, have long life, will not be liable to wear, deterioration, or disorder.

I am aware that automatic flushing valves haveheretofore been used; but it has been a universal shortcoming of such valves that they are very liable to become disordered, especially7 after they have been in use for a little time, thus requiring more or less constant attention to keep them in working order. My flushing valvevis designed particularly to overcome these difficulties by providing a structure that is little subiect to wear, composed of a few simple parts without any delicate mechanism, and so proportioned and designed as to give accurate and reliable action.

' rlfhe features of the invention reside largely in matters of general arrangement and design that will be best understood from a detailed description of a specific and pre ferred form of device embodying the invention; and for that purpose I refer to the accompanying drawings in which- Fig, 1 is a vertical central section of myy improved flushing valve in its normal or closed position; .y

Fig. 2 isa similar' view showing the parts in the position they take when actuated by the initial manual operation.

In the drawingsthe numeral 10 designates a body for the flushing valve, which body may be conveniently made of cast brass or any other suitable material, preferably noncorrosive. This body contains a cylinder 11 of about the size illustrated in the drawings (the drawings being in full size scale for a valve of ordinary size and capacity). At the lower end of cylinder V11 there is an annular recess 12 carrying a valve seat ring 13 of some suitable material, say rubber. The conical valve `11 is adapted to seat on and in the valve seat ring 13, valve 14: being tapered at approximately such an angle as is illustrated in the drawings, and the seating surface of ring 13 being correspondingly tapered. Below the valve seat ring the body casting may have a tapered conical surface 15 that forms substantially a continuation of the taperedl conical inner valve seating face of ring 13, when the valve seating ring 13 is expanded -outwardly by the downward seating action of valve 14. ,Forinstanca when valve 14 isi-off ring 13, the inner conical surface 13a of ring 13 may stand somewhat inwardlyof conical surface 15 of the` body; but when valve 14 comes 4down on ring 'K13 the conical inner surfa`ce13a of ring 13 will Vbe expanded outwardly as the valve takes a tight seat thereon, until the conical surface of the valve also comes into seating contact with surface 15.` The" surface 15 may also form an effective seat for the valve; but because of the superior sealing action of rubber or the like I prefer to depend upon the seat at 13a for the sealing action the seat at 15 beingmore in the nature of a stop or limiting means to limit the ultimate downward movement of the valve and limit the amount that the ring 13 is expanded, thus preventing permanent deformation of 13 and adding very materially to its 1 e.

Conical valve 14 is carried on the lower end of a piston 20` movable vertically in cylinder 11. The piston 20 has a downwardly tapering conical extension 21, and then immediately above valve 14 it has a' downwardly expanding conical part 22. The maximum diameter of the valve and of part 22 is less than that of pistion 20; and consequently, the whole movable member (piston and valve) has a greater surface against which water pressure exerts a pressure upwardly than it has surface against which the water `pressure exerts a pressure downwardly.

Consequently, with water Vpressure intro` duced into the lower part of the cylinder through port 25, there is always a tendency of the pressure to raise the piston and valve, the tendency being measured by the differential between the areas on the piston-that take upward and downward pressures respectively.

At its lower edge piston 2O carries a small downwardly facing cup 'leather 26 that prevents vwater under pressure leaking upwardly past the piston; and at its upper end the piston has an upwardly facing cup leather 27 that makes the piston tight as regards water pressure above it. The piston is hollow, preferably a hollow casting. lts head 28 has openings 29 to allow tree passage of water from above the piston to its interior; randvin the lower inner part oi' the piston, preferably immediately within valve 14:, the piston carries a recess 30 in which there is a valve seat ring 31 also preferably of rubber or Lsome other similar material. On this valve seat ring a ball valve 32 nor'- mally seats and thus seals the valve opening 33. y The rubber valve seat ringl 31, with its valve seating surface, mayv bear the saine relation to the outer edge of recess 30 as valveseat surface 13a or"l ring13 bears to surface 15.? as hereinbefore explained. The openings 39and the valve opening 33 are sufficiently large to allow i'ree and quick passage of `water downwardly from the cylinder above the piston, through the openings into the discharge passage when valve 32 is lifted oil' its seat.

A small bell-crank lever with horizontal and vertical arms 36 and 37 is pivoted at 33 in discharge passage 35. Normally the hori-r zontal. armrlies in the position shown in Fig. 1 withA a small projection 39 immediately below valve 32, while the vertical arm 37 lies opposite a push p in 4() which is normallyheld out by a spring l1 and may be pushed inwardly by pressing on button 421. Inward pressure on button 4 2 throws the bell-crank lever to thek position shown in Fig. 2. In going to this position the projection 39 first lifts valve 32 oif its seat. Then the lever extension shown at 43 moves upinto contact with the lower face of valve 111 and .asf sists in raising the valve and the piston. It will be understood that the water pressure which stands in the annular spacel around the parts 21 and 22 always has a tendency vto lift the valve and piston, and will lift it immediately pressure is relieved from cyli`nder l1k above the piston; but I :iind 'it r`advantageous to have the initial manual operation capable ot at least assisting the valve to start upwardly otl'l its seat. Dependent upon the exact construction and proportion of the parts7` when the parts are in the position shown in Fig. 2 valve 32 may still be kept off its seat or it may have been allowed to returnto its seat by the fact that its seat, along with the valve and piston, has been raised high enough to come up to the valve which is still supported by projection 39.

This vill depend somewhat upon how far button l2 is pressed inwardly. But, in any case, the proportions are so made that, in the length of time ordinarily required to move the mechanism trom the position oli Fig., l to the position of Fig. 2, all or at least a considerable quantity oft' water in cylinder 11 and within hollow piston 20, will have escaped through 'valve opening 33 into discharge passage 35.' The water pressure above the pistou being thus relieved, the diterential water pressure from below then tends to raise the `piston further, and does raise it until upward movement of the piston is stopped. This stoppage may either be causedr by the piston coming into 4contact with cylinder cap 45, or by the accumulation o equalizing pressure in the cylinder d-ue to the water that is then entering the cylinder through ,passage 4:7 controlled by screw 4:6. By properly setting control screw 4:6 the amount of water admitted in a giventime through passage e7 may be nicely regulated. It this passage is open wide, the water may pass intocylinder 11 fast enough to not onlyiil-l up the hollow interior of the piston but also to bring the water level above the piston head; and in such case the piston will stop its upward movement when this water has been moved up to cap 115. On the other hand, control screw l2 may be set down to close off passage i7 so that water enters cylinder 11 very slowly and so that theinterior of the piston is not lilled by the time the piston reaches cap v later under pressure comes from' mains through rpipe i3 into the feed passage lll with whichpassage 47 connects. The port at 25 is sufficiently restricted that a pressure isalways `kept on vport e117 siuiicient to make the total downward pressure on the piston substantially greater thanthe upward water pressure on the piston; so that when cylinder l1 is filled with water `from passage 47, the pressure 'is suilicient to move the piston downwardly. The speed of such downward movement will depend onthe setting.

of control screw 46, and the piston `moves down until valve 14 is againv seated on ring 13,r when the ushing How of water through the device is shut off. As soon as this flow of water is shut oli the pressure at passage 47, materially increases, thereby increasing` the effective force by which the piston is moved downwardly and thus seating valve 14 finally, securely, and tightly, on its seat. In this connection l wish to point out that I haie made valve 14 with a conical Seating surface' oi about the angle shown in the drawings. l have foundthat by making this valve with a rather slight taper (rather than agreat or abrupt taper) I am able. to malte the valve seat positively and tightly even though control screw 46 may be Set to admit water into cylinder 11 very slowly.

It'ithe-V taper is made greater, so that the valve seat surface approaches more nearly being flat, 1t 1s not possible to obtain reliable positive action with control screw 46 set for slow. downward movement of the piston.

Another feature of my device that l wish to draw particular' attention to is this that I gain additional capacity in cylinder ll by making piston 20 hollow. stance, in the design shown, the total capacity of the cylinder above the piston and of the hollow piston, is about twice that of the cylinder alone above the piston. The amount of time necessary to seat the valve 14 will be readily seen to be dependent upon the capacity (the space to be filled above the piston) and upon the rate of water flow through passa e 4l. vWith the amount of space thus dou led, for anyigiven quantity of water desired to be delivered by the flushing valve, it is not necessary7 to adjust control screw 46 nearly so finely as would otherwise be the case. Even when adjusted for a comparatively large quantity of water to be discharged, the control screw still allowsv a large enough flow past it that the control is not delicate and is thus not liable to dis-y order.

lf a larger water connection is needed, for a larger water supply, a larger pipe may be connected to the exterior threads at 43a, And the casting 44a around inlet 44 is made heavy enough that the inlet may be bored out, and the respective port at 25 may Valso be enlarged if desired, to increase the water supply to the valve. Thus, for instance, the pipe at 43 may be three-quarter inch while threads 43a are to take a one inch connection.

Having described a preferred form of my invention, I claim:

l. A flushing valve comprising a body containing a cylinder with an outlet valve passage and seat at one end, an inlet leading with a restriction into the cylinder near that end, and a restricted passage connecting the inlet,- at a point outside its restriction, to the other end of thecylinder; a hollow piston in` the cylinder with a hollow downward reduced extension, a valve on the lower end of the extension adapted to seat on said valve seat, said extension having at its lower end a relief passage coninuinicating with the piston and extension interiors and opening to the cylinder, a valve seat formed in said passage, a valve ball loose within the interior of the extension and adapted to seat on the relief valve seat; and a manually operable lifting arm under the piston extension and having a part adapted to enter the relief passage to directly engage and lift the relief valve off its seat and having another part adapted to engage and lift the extension and piston after lifting the relief valve.

2. A flushing valve comprising a body For incontaining a cylinderwith an outlet valve passage and scat at one end, an linlet leading with avrestriction intothe cylinder near that end, and a restricted passage Iconnecting the inlet, at a point outside its restriction, to the other end of the cylinder; a hollow piston in the `cylinder with a hollow downward reduced extension, a valve on lthe lower end of the extension adapted to seat on said valve seat, said `extension having at its lower end a relief passage communieating with the piston and extension interiors and opening to the cylinder, a valve seat formed in said passage, a valve ball loose within the interior of the extension and adapted toseat on the relief valve seat, a removable and apertured cap on top the piston for preventing displacement of the ball from within the piston; and a manually operable lifting arm under the piston eXten- Vsion and having a part Vadapted to enter the relief passage to directly'engage and lift the relief valve off yits seat and having another part adapted to engage and lift the extension and piston after lifting the relief valve'.

3. A flushing valve comprising a body containing a cylinder with an outlet valve passage and seat at one end, an inletleading with a restriction into the cylindernear that end, and a restricted passage connecting the inlet, at a point outside its restriction, to the other end of the cylinder; a hollow piston in the cylinder with a hollow downward reduced extension, a valve on the lower end of the extension adapted to seat on said valve seat, said extension having at its lower end a relief passage communicating with the piston and extension interiors and opening to the cylinder, a valve seat formed in said passage, a valve ball loose within the interior of the extension and adapted to seat on the relief valve seat, the interior walls of the extension converging towards and leading directly to said relief valve seat for-'guiding the ball thereto; and a manually operable liftingy arm under the piston extension and having a part adapted to enter the relief passage to directly engage and lift the relief valve off its seat and having another part adapted to engage and lift the extension and piston after lifting the relief valve. i

4. A flushing. valve comprising a body containing a cylinder with an outlet valve Vpassage and seat at one end, an inlet leading with a restriction into the cylinder near that end, and a restricted passage connecting the inlet, at a point outside its restriction, to the other end of the cylinder; a hollow piston in the cylinder with a hollow downward reduced extension, a valve on the lower end of the extension adapted to seat on said valve seat, said extension having at its lower end a relief passage eon'xn'luncutng with the psi'on and extension n'lero's and opening to lle Cylinder, a valve seat formed in said passage, a, valve 1oall loose Within the neror of the excen- Sion and adapt-eel to seat onftlle relief Valve Sea, 'he interior Wells of he' extension oonvergng towards and lending directly to said elel' valve seat and povdng the sole means for guiding the ballto seat; and u eo manually operable' lifting arm under the son extenson and having n' part adapted to enter rhel'elef passageto directly engage and lift the relief valve olf its seat and having another part adapted to'engage and lift the extension and piston after lifting' the relief valve.

In W'iness that l claim the foregoing l llave llereuno subscribed my naine this Q/Qncl day of January 1923. v

JAMES F. LANGSTON. 

